UMC First Pure-Play Foundry to Join The X Initiative
December 08 2003 - 6:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
UMC First Pure-Play Foundry to Join The X Initiative Availability
of Production Fabrication Ensures Fabless Semiconductor Companies
Can Now Adopt X Architecture MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 8
/PRNewswire/ -- The X Initiative today announced that world-leading
semiconductor foundry UMC is the first pure-play foundry to become
a member of the semiconductor supply- chain consortium. UMC is now
ready to accept X Architecture designs for fabrication at the
180nm, 150nm and 130nm process nodes. The availability of
production fabrication for X Architecture designs is a critical
step toward broad commercial adoption of this new chip-wiring
architecture. The X Architecture represents a new way of orienting
a chip's microscopic interconnecting wires using diagonal pathways,
as well as the traditional right-angle, or "Manhattan,"
configuration. By enabling designs with significantly less wire and
fewer vias (the connectors between wiring layers), the X
Architecture can provide significant, simultaneous improvements in
chip performance, power consumption and cost. "UMC is focused on
providing innovative solutions, and the X Architecture offers
significant benefits to our customers," said Patrick Lin, chief SoC
architect at UMC. "We are very pleased to take a leadership
position as the first pure-play foundry to join the X Initiative
and are ready to accept the X Architecture designs for production."
The pre-production design-to-silicon roadmap for the X Architecture
laid out by the X Initiative in 2002 was recently completed with
the announcement of functional silicon results (see "Toshiba
Produces First Functional Silicon Using the X Architecture," news
release dated October 8, 2003). The focus of the X Initiative's
collaborative supply-chain preparation is now to enable broad
adoption of the X Architecture for production manufacturing at both
current (130nm, 90nm) and future (65nm, 45nm and below)
manufacturing nodes. First production chips are expected in 2004.
"Pure-play foundry support for X Architecture designs is a critical
milestone toward the goal of broad commercial adoption," noted Aki
Fujimura, X Initiative steering group member and CTO, new business
incubation at Cadence Design Systems, Inc. "By joining the X
Initiative as its first member from the pure-play foundry sector,
UMC has assumed a leadership role in advancing the commercial
roadmap for the X Architecture." About UMC UMC (NYSE:UMC)(TSE:2303)
is a leading global semiconductor foundry that manufactures
advanced process ICs for applications spanning every major sector
of the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge foundry
technologies that enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SOC)
designs, including 90nm copper, 0.13um copper, embedded DRAM, and
mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC is also a leader in 300mm manufacturing;
Fab 12A in Taiwan is currently in volume production for a variety
of customer products, while Singapore-based UMC is now in pilot
production. UMC employs over 8,500 people worldwide and has offices
in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can
be found on the web at http://www.umc.com/ . About the X
Architecture The X Architecture, the first production-worthy
approach to the pervasive use of diagonal interconnect, reduces the
total interconnect, or wiring, on a chip by more than 20 percent
and via-counts by more than 30 percent, resulting in simultaneous
improvements in chip performance, power and cost. For the past 20
years, chip design has been primarily based on the de facto
industry standard "Manhattan" architecture, named for its
right-angle interconnects resembling a city-street grid. The X
Architecture rotates the primary direction of the interconnect in
the fourth and fifth metal layers by 45 degrees from a Manhattan
architecture. The new architecture maintains compatibility with
existing cell libraries, memory cells, compilers and IP cores by
preserving the Manhattan geometry of metal layers one through
three. About the X Initiative The X Initiative, a group of leading
companies from throughout the semiconductor industry, is chartered
with accelerating the availability and fabrication of the X
Architecture, a revolutionary interconnect architecture based on
the pervasive use of diagonal routing. The X Initiative's five-year
mission is to provide an independent source of education about the
X Architecture, to facilitate support and fabrication of the X
Architecture through the semiconductor industry supply chain, and
to survey usage of the X Architecture to track its adoption.
Representing leaders spanning the entire design-to-silicon supply
chain, X Initiative members include: Applied Materials, Inc.; ARM;
Artisan Components, Inc.; ASML Netherlands B.V.; Cadence Design
Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN); Dai Nippon Printing (DNP); DuPont
Photomasks, Inc.; Etec Systems, Inc., an Applied Materials, Inc.
company; GDA Technologies, Inc.; HPL Technologies, Inc.; Hoya
Corporation; IN2FAB Technology Ltd.; JEOL, Ltd.; KLA-Tencor
Corporation; Leica Microsystems AG; Matsushita Electric Industrial
Co., Ltd.; MicroArk Co. Ltd.; Monterey Design Systems, Inc.; Nikon
Corporation; NuFlare Technology Inc.; PDF Solutions, Inc.;
Photronics, Inc.; Prolific Inc.; RUBICAD Corporation; Sagantec;
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.; Silicon Logic Engineering, Inc.;
SiliconMap, LLC.; Silicon Valley Research Inc.; STMicroelectronics;
Sycon Design, Inc.; Tensilica, Inc.; Toppan Printing Co.; Toshiba
Corporation; Trecenti Technologies, Inc.; UMC; Virage Logic, Inc.;
Virtual Silicon Technology, Inc.; and Zygo Corporation. Membership
is open to all companies throughout the semiconductor supply chain.
Materials can be found at http://www.xinitiative.org/ Cautionary
Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements This release contains
forward-looking statements (including, without limitation,
information regarding semiconductor design, production and
performance improvements resulting from the X Architecture, the
compatibility of the X Architecture with current technology, the
future success of X Architecture technology and the ability of
certain of the X Initiative members to support the X Architecture)
that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the results
of X Initiative members and other events to differ materially from
managements' current expectations. Actual results and events may
differ materially due to a number of factors including, among
others: future strategic decisions made by the X Initiative
members; failure of the X Architecture to enable the production of
designs that are feasible and competitive with current designs or
future alternatives; future strategic decisions made by X
Initiative members or others that inhibit the development of the X
Architecture; demand for advanced semiconductors that are developed
using the X Architecture; cost feasibility of the production of
semiconductors designed using the X Architecture; and the rapid
pace of technological change in the semiconductor industry. The
matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and
uncertainties described in the most recent filings of the X
Initiative members with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The
X Initiative members, individually or collectively, assume no
obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in
this release. DATASOURCE: X Initiative CONTACT: Sherrie Gutierrez
of MCA, +1-650-968-8900, for X Initiative; or Eileen Elam of KJ
Communications, +1-650-917-1488, , for UMC (in the U.S.), or In
Taiwan - Alex Hinnawi of UMC, +1-886-2-2700-6999, ext. 6958, Web
site: http://www.umc.com/ http://www.xinitiative.org/
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